Turbulence Hospitalizes a Dozen United Flyers

A London-bound United Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing after rough weather caused injuries to several passengers and crew members.

Passengers are describing the terrifying scene aboard a United Airlines flight from George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) as “petrifying.” The flight was forced to divert to Shannon Airport (SNN) after severe turbulence injured 16 passengers, twelve of whom had to be taken to the hospital when the Boeing 767 landed in Ireland hours later.

“United Airlines is providing care and support to customers and crew of flight UA880 which experienced severe and unexpected turbulence during a flight from Houston to London Heathrow today,” United Airlines spokesperson Erin Benson told reporters in a statement. “All have since been discharged, except for one of our flight attendants.”

One passenger on the flight told BBC News that the trouble first started when the flight was still about four hours away from its intended destination. Gregory Giagnocavo said that the rough skies hit without warning, tossing passengers and flight attendants about the cabin.

“We reached the mid-Atlantic when, suddenly, there was a sensation of the plane slamming into mid-air,” passenger John Dunton-Downer told BBC News. “It felt like it was made of paper and hitting a solid object. People, including babies, hit the ceiling and there was a lot of screaming. It felt like the plane was going down.”

The twelve injured travelers reportedly suffered from injuries that ranged from soft tissue injuries and cuts to minor head injuries. According to the Associated Press (AP),the flight was able to make an emergency landing approximately three hours after the weather-related incident first disrupted the red-eye flight in the early morning hours on Wednesday.